Crawford led efforts from 2007 to 2009 to solve the $32 billion ABCP financial crisis as chair of the Pan-Canadian Investors Committee.

Purdy Crawford began as a corporate lawyer in the 1950s before leaving to pursue a career with Imasco Ltd., a holding company that, at the time, held Imperial Tobacco, Canada Trust and Shoppers Drug Mart.
TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO

By:The Canadian Press, Published on Tue Aug 12 2014

Purdy Crawford, a lawyer and a businessman who once headed Montreal-based Imasco Ltd., died Tuesday at age 82.

Crawford’s death was confirmed by the Toronto legal firm Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt where Crawford began as a corporate lawyer in the 1950s before leaving to pursue a career with Imasco Ltd., a holding company that, at the time, held Imperial Tobacco, Canada Trust and Shoppers Drug Mart.

After retiring from Imasco, he was active throughout his 70s — first chairing a panel of corporate leaders that recommended that Canada adopt a single securities regulator and then leading efforts to resolve the multibillion-dollar ABCP financial crisis as chair of the Pan-Canadian Investors Committee.

Crawford was a native of Five Islands, N.S., and a graduate of Mount Allison University, Dalhousie Law School and Harvard Law School. As a partner with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt, he practiced primarily corporate and commercial law.

He joined Imasco in 1985 as its president and chief operating officer before taking on the company’s top job as CEO from 1987 to 1995. He remained a non-executive chairman of Imasco Ltd, CT Financial Services Inc. and Canada Trustco Mortgage Company until his retirement on Feb. 1, 2000.

In in May 2005, Crawford headed an Ontario government panel of corporate leaders that recommended that Canada adopt a single, national securities regulator — an idea that was later supported by the late Jim Flaherty while he was the federal finance minister.

Crawford was called on to head the Pan-Canadian committee from 2007 until 2009. The committee was set up by the major institutional investors to salvage about $32 billion invested in short-term notes that couldn’t be redeemed, but he also worked to reduce the impact on individuals who had invested in the securities.

In an interview, Crawford said it wasn’t until the committee embarked on a three-day whirlwind tour to talk to retail investors in March 2008 that he understood just how many average Canadians were affected by the frozen assets.

“We started in Toronto, and it wasn’t so obvious there,” Crawford said while the ABCP crisis was still unfolding.

The numbers grew when they moved on to Montreal and Edmonton, but it was a passionate gathering in Vancouver that left a big impression on the lawyer.

“The place was packed. And yes, I think it was good for those investors to have a face to talk to. I saw the anger, the frustration,” he said.

While Crawford’s plan ultimately received the approval of an overwhelming majority of noteholders, some investors accused his committee of muddling the process for ordinary people who had put their savings into the commercial paper.

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